I poked around a bit to make sure I'm not repeating something already out there. As a middle aged lady who ALWAYS has to pee, especially in the middle of the night, I have my own little toilet bucket at my camp. If you are planning to have your own pee bucket, I recommend Feline Pine as a great filler to soak up your pee. I've used it for many years with my cats, so I know that it is absorbent and good with odors. I try to use the portapotties as much as possible, but no way am I putting on my shoes and walking to them at 4am. I've experimented with different fillers for my pee bucket and Feline Pine is my first choice. You can even dump it in your compost when you get home if you want to.

Glad it works for you, but personally I'd much rather trek to the porto in the night when nature calls than haul an old bucket of pee home with me. Slip-on shoes and clothes that aren't hard to slip on/off make it less jarring.

I walk to the portos at night. Same as when I go camping. Same as I walk to the bathroom inside a house at night. Easy to slip on clothes and shoes, good point, Trilo. It's so nice to get back into bed, when you get back, isn't it? It isn't clear to me why some find a need to adopt new elimination strategies: like not sitting down, using baby wipes, and peeing in containers they need to empty later, or using some sort of feline litter box product.

She Wee works great (with just a little practice) and my son gets chocolate milk in white plastic bottles (with cap) just right for over night, and easy to take to the Jots in the morning. I take the label off and felt-tip a skull & crossbones on the side. Makes it easier not to drink by accident.

I usually overhydrate at BM, and alcohol/diuretics and more hydration to boot. Then I go to sleep, but later that water has to leave my body. The piss-jug saves me from having to get up and bike to the bathroom in the cold of the night or during the heat of day, and all the extra overhead that comes with it: dressing, putting on my boots, unlocking the bike, riding to the bathroom, locking the bike, waiting for a toilet to open up, unlocking the bike again, riding back to camp, taking off my boots, undressing, and trying to fall back asleep again. I even have the benefit of being able to piss while standing without a funnel!

I piss in that jug and thinking "heh heh heh, man did I just save myself a trip. Now I can go back to sleep and deal with this when I get up."

There was even one time that I felt I wouldn't even make it to the bathroom because I had to piss so badly. That was when the piss jug REALLY hit home, and I was glad I chose/found a large bottle.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

I was VERY thankful for my pee bucket the last night I was there, because I developed a sudden case of the runs and no way would I have made it to the portapotties a block and a half away. That bucket saved my butt. And being a solo camper, my pee bucket never got full, because I just used it at night and in the afternoons if I was in camp taking a shade break. I never made it to the pee funnel camp last time, even though I brought a "yellow" nalgene just for that. (I didn't make it to many places my first year). They are first on my list this year because I need extended peeability for the far reaches of the playa, expecially as I tend to have my daypack loaded with coconut water and beer. As for going to the portapotties in the middle of the night, some of you are obviously not as old as I am and can make it that far when you have to go. I've got an old lady bladder, kegels aside. I can barely make it to the bathroom at home some nights, and that's 10 feet from my bed. I'm also blind as a bat without my glasses, which is why I never go far to pee in the middle of the night when I'm camping. In the past I've fallen over rocks, been smacked in the face with branches, and rolled down a little dip when I squatted on uneven ground. I'm usually so sleepy when I wake up to pee that I forget to grab my glasses. I can picture myself groping for funnel and trying to unscrew nalgene and it is not a pretty picture. I know my bladder and my limitations, and the fully sealable for travel pee bucket I have, with fully absorbent feline pine and enzyme packets, was a very successful addition to my little camp. To each her own.

I worked in a mining camp in Alaska one summer, and all of us had "peecans" in our cabin tents, because the bathroom was in the main building and about 50 trillion giant mosquitoes lurked outside. I used a peecan one winter in Alaska too, during a blizzard, because you couldn't even SEE the outhouse, much less get to it.

We have a lugaloo in camp for emergencies, but the pee jug can be emptied daily. I am not precisely young either. Heh. We have tried all sorts of smell killers, and yes our cats like feline pine, but my preference is not to deal with a bucket. Of poo. I have to do that when riding along on the truck. So yeah, to each their own but you will hear a lot of opinions here.

I don't have a problem with other people's opinions, as long as mine are respected also. As for the poo, that was an emergency, and I hadn't planned to use my pee bucket for that. Portapotties are an absolute must at a big event like BM, and the people who service them do an amazing job, but a person like myself, who knows her bladder and doesn't mind taking home her own bucket, is actually putting less pressure on the potties. That's a good thing in my view. It's my camp, I'm the one dealing with it, and it works for me. And people who build self-composting toilets typically use sawdust as the medium (you will usually find a bucket of sawdust next to the toilet, with a scoop), so it's a good, natural solution that is far less toxic to the environment than the chemicals in portapotties. And speaking of those portapotties, I'm one of the people who ALWAYS leaves them cleaner than when I walked in. I pick up loose paper, wipe down the seat, and never ever throw MOOP in the toilet. I'm perfectly comfortable with MY elimination strategies, thank you very much.

No problem. My point was just that it wasn't a NEW strategy for me, but simply a variation of things that work for me, and I thought I'd share it in case it worked for somebody else too. And as for people who hover or throw MOOP in the potties, I've found that those people often do the same thing in the default world when in public restrooms. It's gross, dumb, and rude in whatever setting it is done. Those are the same people who throw used disposable baby diapers out their car windows when traveling. And when you get 50,000 people together for a week, there are always some of that group present, along with the thieves, predators, and mean people.

BBadger wrote:I usually overhydrate at BM, and alcohol/diuretics and more hydration to boot. Then I go to sleep, but later that water has to leave my body. The piss-jug saves me from having to get up and bike to the bathroom in the cold of the night or during the heat of day, and all the extra overhead that comes with it: dressing, putting on my boots, unlocking the bike, riding to the bathroom, locking the bike, waiting for a toilet to open up, unlocking the bike again, riding back to camp, taking off my boots, undressing, and trying to fall back asleep again. I even have the benefit of being able to piss while standing without a funnel!

I piss in that jug and thinking "heh heh heh, man did I just save myself a trip. Now I can go back to sleep and deal with this when I get up."

There was even one time that I felt I wouldn't even make it to the bathroom because I had to piss so badly. That was when the piss jug REALLY hit home, and I was glad I chose/found a large bottle.

This is exactly why I have a detergent bottle and a funnel. It saves me 45-50 minutes per day over the course of the Burn that I could've spent plodding to and from the portos. That time adds up! And it gives me probably an extra hour of sleep per night, 'cause once I wake up, I can't get back to sleep.

AntiM wrote:

9ah wrote:I literally LOL'ed... Practice during the day with a half-full bladder. Once you get it down it's a piece of cake!

Mine is a squishy go-girl and I peed all over myself. I have a spare new in package if anyone wants it. Going to try the pstyle next. Does the size of the bush matter?

Ugh, I hate the Go Girl. The squishiness makes it very difficult to get a tight seal. (No wonder it was so cheap.) Any rigid model is probably going to work way better. I've never tried the P-style. I like the Freshette, but it's wayyy overpriced. Believe it or not, I bought an elliptically shaped automotive funnel for $3 as an experiment, because it's similar in shape. One of the ePlaya ladies recommended it, but I haven't tried it yet.

If it works, the automotive funnel is going to be the tent funnel, and the Freshette will be the mobile funnel, because it breaks down into two parts.

*** 2016 Survival Guide ***"I must've lost it when I was twerking at the trash fence." -- BBadger

I tend to roll out of bed in the middle of the night (10am) and wander to the portos wearing a suit jacket, boxers and a single sock. Hands all pressed against my face to block out the raging horror of the blinding flashlight of sobriety.

Nipple wrote:I tend to roll out of bed in the middle of the night (10am) and wander to the portos wearing a suit jacket, boxers and a single sock. Hands all pressed against my face to block out the raging horror of the blinding flashlight of sobriety.

mytripod wrote:No problem. My point was just that it wasn't a NEW strategy for me, but simply a variation of things that work for me, and I thought I'd share it in case it worked for somebody else too. And as for people who hover or throw MOOP in the potties, I've found that those people often do the same thing in the default world when in public restrooms. It's gross, dumb, and rude in whatever setting it is done. Those are the same people who throw used disposable baby diapers out their car windows when traveling. And when you get 50,000 people together for a week, there are always some of that group present, along with the thieves, predators, and mean people.

But what about the assholes who leave baby diapers in the water near hot springs?! Yes, I discovered that once! That should be a capital crime!

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

Nipple wrote:I tend to roll out of bed in the middle of the night (10am) and wander to the portos wearing a suit jacket, boxers and a single sock. Hands all pressed against my face to block out the raging horror of the blinding flashlight of sobriety.

Why don't ya stick your head in that hole and find out? ~pieholePlan for the worst, expect the best. Make the most out of it under any conditions. If you cannot do that you will never enjoy yourself. ~CrispyDave